The grant will address stormwater runoff and flooding by assessing infrastructure needs of the West End Hermondale community, as well as help build community partnerships. Howardville Community Betterment will disseminate information on the Safe Drinking Water Act, distribute EPA educational materials, and develop a survey to help determine the effectiveness of its community outreach efforts.

“Working for environmental justice is one of the seven priorities of EPA and Administrator Lisa P. Jackson,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks. “This grant will allow the community to begin to tackle local environmental concerns that otherwise may have gone unaddressed.”

EPA’s environmental justice efforts aim to ensure equal environmental and health protections for all Americans, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. The grants enable non-profit, faith-based, or tribal organizations to conduct research, provide education, and develop solutions to local health and environmental issues in communities overburdened by harmful pollution.

While announcing the awarding of its 2011 grants, EPA has also launched its 2012 grant solicitation. EPA will award $1 million in Environmental Justice Grants in 2012. Applicants must be incorporated non-profit, faith-based, or tribal organizations working to educate, empower, and enable their communities to understand and address local environmental and public health issues. EPA will host three pre-application teleconference calls to help applicants understand the requirements. The dates of the teleconference calls are January 12, 2012, February 1, 2012, and February 15, 2012. The deadline to apply for the 2012 grants is February 29, 2012.

Information about the Environment Justice Small Grants 2012 Request for Applications and a schedule of pre-application teleconference calls is available online(47 pp, 636K, About PDF).

Environmental justice means the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race or income, in the environmental decision-making process. Since 1994, the environmental justice small grants program has provided more than $23 million in funding to community-based nonprofit organizations and local governments working to address environmental justice issues in more than 1,200 communities. The grants represent EPA’s commitment to expand the conversation on environmentalism and advance environmental justice in communities across the nation.

For more information, including eligibility requirements, purposes, goals, and general procedures, please contact EPA Region 7 at 1-800-223-0425.